Abstract
A towed geophysical device has been developed that will allow the rapid quantification of seafloor sediment properties for engineering and other purposes. The seabed hardware consists of seismic sources, a focused electrode pad (all sledge mounted), and a string of gimballed triaxial geophones. The seismic sources are impulsive devices that are essentially electromagnetic hammers that can preferentially generate shear or compressional waves dependent on their mode of operation. Travel time relationships obtained for seismic waves propagating through the sediment body to the geophone array allow the velocity structure to be defined to a depth dictated by the maximum receiver offset. Of particular interest to the engineers are the velocity gradient effects that for shear waves are indicative of the seabed sediment rigidity. The device can be used to construct distribution maps of geophysically related physical properties of the sediment body, and their variation with depth. Surveys carried out with the device in well‐documented test‐bed sites have produced significant correlations between the geophysical parameters and the known sediment variability.
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